The residents of upper Orchard Street have been living in a construction zone for almost a decade now. The perpetually stalled hotel project at 180 Orchard Street finally got moving again a few weeks ago, as crews dismantled the two-story concrete skeleton put in place by previous developers. While a lot of people are relieved to see some progress at the site, local residents were not at all pleased about the construction noise reverberating throughout the immediate area, which started as early as 7 a.m. But after a round of calls to Community Board 3 and the Lower East Side BID, the situation seems to have improved.

It’s demo day at 180 Orchard Street, one of the neighborhood’s most infamous construction sites. The heavy machinery is making quick word of the two story shell of a building. The structure is being taken down so crews can begin building a 26-story, 250 room Hotel Indigo.

It’s been a long haul for residents and local businesses on Orchard Street, who have had to put up with this eyesore since the bottom fell out of the real estate market several years ago. In 2011, Brack Capital bought the property for $46 million from developer Morris Platt. As we reported in November, this project is part of a huge hotel building boom on the Lower East Side. Just based on already-announced projects, the hotel room inventory is expected to triple to more than 1600 rooms in the next couple of years.

Click through for more photos, plus a rendering of the new Orchard Street hotel.

Marco, of Marcoart, at work on his latest mural in front of 180 Orchard.

As Bowery Boogie mentioned, the stalled building site that has been dubbed “The Orchard Street Hell Building” by Curbed (they have documented the five-year saga of the construction site here) is getting a new mural painted by Marco of Marcoart NYC.

Why the new wrapping on the scaffolding? Marco told The Lo-Down that one of the investors from the Thompson LES hotel (located across the street) implored the developer to do something to make the site (now back on the market) look better.